AIDS cases among women has increased 600% since 1986 with a current growth rate of infection 2 1/2 times faster than for men. Yet women continue to report high rates of HIV-risky sexual behavior, and thus are at increasing risk for HIV unless primary prevention strategies are developed and implemented on a wide scale. This award would provide impetus for empirical research on behavioral strategies relevant to the issue of AIDS prevention in this population. One promising area of research to promote HIV risk reduction among gay/bisexual men has involved social influence/diffusion of innovation principles. Opinion leaders among gay men in a community are recruited and trained as peer behavior change agents. Kelly et al. (1991) reported that this strategy has produced substantial risk reduction among gay men. The purpose of the proposed project is to test the extension of this approach to a group of college women using an empirically based, graduated approach to the development of assessment and intervention procedures. The study will be conducted in four dormitories on a small liberal arts college for women. Two dormitories will be randomly assigned to an intervention condition, where in addition to standard educational material, women identified as socially influential among their peers will be trained to serve as AIDS risk reduction endorsers. In the comparison dormitories, AIDS educational materials alone will be disseminated. Data will be collected at postintervention and at three- and six-month follow-up to determine risk behavior characteristics of women residing in all four dormitories. Probe assessments of condom-taking behavior, curfew violations, and the number of empty containers of alcoholic beverages will also be conducted. It is hypothesized that reductions in risk behavior will occur of a greater magnitude, and more consistently and more quickly among women in intervention dormitories than in comparison dormitories. It is also hypothesized that probe assessments will corroborate these changes. The proposed project will provide needed empirical data regarding the development of HIV prevention strategies among women.